Jonas Bjerre (Mew)

A RARE SIGHT

An interview with Jonas Bjerre (Mew)

Much like the Pokémon character their band name recalls for us ’90s kids, Danish prog rockers Mew are creatures of legend rarely seen in these parts.

In fact, their December show at Manning Bar will be the first time any of them have ever set foot in Australia, despite two decades of touring.

For the band’s Antipodean fans, it’s been a long time coming – so much so that fan collectives like Mewstralia had to petition and push for the band to snag an Aussie venue. Mew’s soft-spoken frontman Jonas Bjerre recounts how surprising it was to learn years ago that such a sizable grassroots movement had developed around their music.

“It was always a mystery – I would like to ask them that, how did they learn about us, you know?” he says, resting up in Paris before the next leg of their world tour in support of new album + -. “I guess it’s just word of mouth, and maybe the internet. So yeah, we know we’ve had a lot of people waiting for us there, and it’s gonna be so great to go, finally!”

For someone who’s only ever experienced Australia through films and music, touring here is an exciting prospect. Bjerre mentions Tame Impala, INXS and “everyone surfing” as his reference points, as well as the praise of other touring musicians, but it’s the nature that most attracts him.

“You have a completely different animal kingdom there, which is something that fascinates me a lot,” he says. “I’m a little bit scared of the big bugs I hear about, but I don’t know – I think you have to probably go into the wilderness to see that, right?”

It seems that logistics have gotten in the way of any earlier Mew tours, along with the band’s shifting lineup. In the last year alone, founding bassist Johan Wohlert returned to the fold after a six-year absence, and founding guitarist Bo Madsen bowed out to be replaced by Mads Wegner.

“It’s hard to talk about it,” says Bjerre. “There’s obviously a lot of different factors involved in a member leaving, and you know, we’ve written music together for 20 years, so it’s quite a change … We’re very happy with Mads, he’s a great guy and a wonderful guitar player. He’s really enjoying being on tour with us. It’s contagious; when someone’s really excited to be on tour, then it excites you as well. We have a really good feedback loop of excitement and joy, being on tour.”

That feedback is likely to soar to even greater heights when thousands of Aussie fans, after so long a wait, get their first glimpse of Mew’s renowned ‘indie stadium’ live experience. “People say we have a very grandiose sound, even if we play a small place,” says Bjerre. “I don’t know if we sound more grandiose than other bands but our songs are very emotional and they’re a little bit dreamlike. We have a very fresh energy right now, and usually we have very good shows. I think people will like it. I hope so.”

The ultimate nature of these performances is yet to be seen, however, as even Bjerre is not certain whether Mew will use his animations as video backdrop for the gigs. “I think I started [animating] because I was quite shy being onstage,” he admits, “so it’s kind of a compensation for not being very extrovert[ed]. Obviously it’s been a long time since then and I feel more confident being onstage now.

“It’s nice sometimes to play without it as well, because you feel like the focus is more direct. It’s almost like a kind of conversation between the audience and the band, and when you have the visuals, it becomes something slightly different – it’s more sort of, I dunno, like a piece of art or something.”

Given the promise the setlists will cover a broad range of material from Mew’s six-album back catalogue, that’s as good as a guarantee. Bjerre has been focused on crafting sets that will allow for the new and old material to effortlessly flow together.

“I think that makes for the best shows,” he says. “It’s surprising to me. Sometimes, when you play really old songs and mix them with really new songs, they obviously are different from each other but they still work together really well.”

As for the new material, + - has been making waves for the band since its April release, refining the rough edges from 2009’s experimental No More Stories… and returning to the crunchier prog rock textures that made Frengers a hit in 2003.

“Our producer was very adamant that the songs had to work with just [us] guys playing,” says Bjerre. “In the past we’ve made albums where we completely just focused on making the album, and obviously kind of ambitious production ideas, and then had to sort of translate that … It’s always a bit more raw live, which I like.”

It’s an album that Bjerre calls “celebratory”, and one that embodies who and what they are – which, apparently, is nothing to do with Pokémon. “We’re older than that, I’m ashamed to say,” Bjerre laughs. “We came up with Mew before Nintendo came up with the pesky little pink thing.”

The title actually arose from their high school days when, disappointed after baking a “disgusting” cake, the boys threw possible band names around, and Mew stuck. “It had a sort of incomplete symmetry to it – it was kinda pointy at the edges and soft in the middle with the small E. There wasn’t any deeper thought behind it than that, just how it sounded and looked. And it had a mystery to it, in a way.”

Finally, we get to catch a glimpse of that mystery on our very own shores.


Mew's + - is out through [PIAS]. They play Manning Bar on Wednesday December 2.

Post originally printed in The BRAG, available at http://thebrag.com/music/mew